Chapter 4 - Someone Had Been Watching
The hidden footage changed everything.
Detective Ruiz brought a laptop into a private consultation room the next morning.
Emily sat with Lily asleep against her shoulder. Daniel sat beside her with a bandage over his temple.
Ruiz pressed play.
The first clip showed their kitchen from a high angle.
Emily frowned. "We don't have a camera there."
"That's the point," Ruiz said.
The date stamp was from six weeks earlier.
Vanessa entered the kitchen alone, opened a cabinet, and pulled out a small camera no bigger than a coin.
She adjusted it.
Then she looked directly into the lens.
Daniel whispered, "What the hell?"
More clips followed.
Vanessa listening outside Daniel's office.
Vanessa photographing envelopes on the dining table.
Vanessa opening Emily's purse.
Vanessa entering the nursery while Lily slept.
Emily tightened her arms around her child.
"Why would she do this?"
Ruiz skipped ahead.
The next clip had audio.
Vanessa stood in the upstairs hallway, speaking on the phone.
"He still hasn't signed it," she said.
A muffled voice answered.
Vanessa replied, "Then I need Emily gone before Daniel reviews the trust papers."
Daniel leaned forward.
"What trust papers?"
Vanessa's voice continued.
"If he finds the transfers, I'm finished."
Emily looked at Daniel.
"Transfers?"
He shook his head, confused.
Ruiz paused the video.
"Do you have a family trust?"
Daniel nodded slowly. "My father created one before he died. Vanessa handled some of the paperwork because she was executor until I turned thirty."
"How much money are we talking about?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Several million."
Emily stared at him.
He had never hidden their financial situation from her, but he rarely talked about the trust.
Ruiz resumed the footage.
Another clip showed Vanessa standing in Daniel's home office with a folder.
She removed several papers from a locked drawer.
Then she replaced them with others.
Daniel stood up despite the doctor's order to rest.
"Those are my father's files."
Ruiz looked at him. "We need you to stay calm."
"Calm? She put cameras in my home. She went through my father's documents. She hurt my daughter."
Emily reached for his hand.
Ruiz opened a new folder on the laptop.
"There's more."
A video appeared from three nights earlier.
Vanessa sat alone at the dining table with another person.
A man.
His face was partly hidden.
But Daniel recognized the watch on his wrist.
His face went still.
"No," he said.
Emily looked at him.
"Who is that?"
May you like
Daniel swallowed.
"My father's attorney."
